Im closing in to my second winter now where my 7 chilli plants that i have is getting aphids in the end of summer, the chillies stay outside in a greenhouse during summer time, but inside during after summer time because its like 5c outside now, i didn't take the chili plants in before it was like 8c so plant have lost a lot of leafes and probably been damaged by aphids during summer too even tho i could not see much aphids on the plants during summer, was thinking maybe other insects ate them but now they are inside and aphids is appearing again in small numbers but even after showering them for the 3th time now after taking inside last week they keep showing up, Some of the chili plants is about 3 years old as well so getting rid of them would be annoying but maybe that is the only solution as its getting time consuming to battle them with water?
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indoor Aphids is it worth the time fighting it?
- Thread starter Sinder
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They are worth fighting against, for sure.
If you don't fight, they will continue to reproduce and the problems will be greater in spring. They are a really bad pest. They leave the plant without strength and the leaves fucking ugly.
I use potassium soap every 5 days and usually 2 or 3 applications are enough to kill them. Sometimes you have to do it again a few weeks later.
If you can, add diatomaceous earth to the base of your plant, it helps a lot and is eco-friendly (make sure you get food grade).
I wish you luck.
If you don't fight, they will continue to reproduce and the problems will be greater in spring. They are a really bad pest. They leave the plant without strength and the leaves fucking ugly.
I use potassium soap every 5 days and usually 2 or 3 applications are enough to kill them. Sometimes you have to do it again a few weeks later.
If you can, add diatomaceous earth to the base of your plant, it helps a lot and is eco-friendly (make sure you get food grade).
I wish you luck.
Ofcourse id rather have them survive but it feels like getting rid of them is impossible as i fought them for like 6 months with the shower during last years winter as well and now it will be the same thing again for like 6 months, the plants i have is not so very tall or big other then the carolina reaper so i would't say theres much to prune other then the middle one but all plants keep spawning aphids at same rate so i believe theyre all infected by aphids, i think you Canedog was helping me with tips then as well back before about the bucket method and shower, it works for sure. but somehow some keeps surviving.
Aphids are the pits, what i did is use a shop vac in blow mode to blow them off the plants. you can use low pressure air as well. I guess the idea is to reduce their presence on the plants to a very low level, keep this up daily. I live on the third floor of an apartment complex and can see the aphids fly off the balcony. So far its working. hope this helps.
Cheers!
Cheers!
CaneDog
Extreme Member
Yep. It's difficult to hold them off for an entire winter. Getting them through a month or two isn't so terrible.
The two options to make life easier that I know are either to prune them back - I mean WAY back, as in cutting them back to the main stem, short, with little or nothing else, then letting them grow back. It's so much easier to rinse and treat them that way and there are far fewer places for the aphids to hide. Eggs are still an issue and you can't fall behind if all you have are budding growth nodes and the aphids hatch out, as they can kill the plant fairly quickly if you wait to long to deal with them. The other option is temperature. Instead of growing the plants over winter, put them somewhere cold (as in 8c - 12c) with limited light (perhaps 4-5 hours a day and not very strong) and let the go dormant - I'd still give them a bit of a prune and a good rinse off first anyway. The living aphids will die off and new eggs won't hatch. You'll likely still have to deal with aphids in the spring for when it warms up inside and it's still too cold at night for them to go outside, but that's a lot shorter time to have to manage them than all winter. Reducing the number of plants you overwinter to the minimum you really care about also makes this easier.
A final consideration is if you'll be germinating new peppers in early spring as these plants are still inside, you risk cross-contamination. If the aphids get at your sprouts that's big trouble as it's very hard to treat sprouts for aphids and they can do critical damage to sprouts in a very short time.
Good luck with things. I've been through it and aphids just really really suck once they establish themselves.
The two options to make life easier that I know are either to prune them back - I mean WAY back, as in cutting them back to the main stem, short, with little or nothing else, then letting them grow back. It's so much easier to rinse and treat them that way and there are far fewer places for the aphids to hide. Eggs are still an issue and you can't fall behind if all you have are budding growth nodes and the aphids hatch out, as they can kill the plant fairly quickly if you wait to long to deal with them. The other option is temperature. Instead of growing the plants over winter, put them somewhere cold (as in 8c - 12c) with limited light (perhaps 4-5 hours a day and not very strong) and let the go dormant - I'd still give them a bit of a prune and a good rinse off first anyway. The living aphids will die off and new eggs won't hatch. You'll likely still have to deal with aphids in the spring for when it warms up inside and it's still too cold at night for them to go outside, but that's a lot shorter time to have to manage them than all winter. Reducing the number of plants you overwinter to the minimum you really care about also makes this easier.
A final consideration is if you'll be germinating new peppers in early spring as these plants are still inside, you risk cross-contamination. If the aphids get at your sprouts that's big trouble as it's very hard to treat sprouts for aphids and they can do critical damage to sprouts in a very short time.
Good luck with things. I've been through it and aphids just really really suck once they establish themselves.
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Siv
Extreme Member
I found aphids almost impossible to deal with indoors without using pyrethrin as they run rampant without natural predators. Pyrethrin is an extract from chrysanthemums so natural and safe but also effective against aphids. They also degrade quickly so once they've done the job, they don't linger. This means that you'll get relief but may have to treat again when the aphids return (which they will).
i ended up trimming the chillies back a pretty big bit at least for the oldest chili that i have just let grow for many years, i guess it have helped so far. the aphids probably will find their way back eventually but much easier to keep the chili free of aphids or at least at low rate that it wont harm the chili to much until next aphid shower happens whenever i spot any of them, at least a better solution to give a try instead of getting rid of entire plant
for me once i see aphids indoors its time to get rid of everything and start growing something else. by the time the next round of seeds sprout i don't have to worry about them coming back for hopefully a few months. Ive tried all sorts of things from soaps to spays to powders to pruning and its just a battle i don't feel you can win.
At least you don't have spider mites.
The most effective method I've used for aphid control is to employ a trap crop. Plant something the aphids prefer over your peppers. Then periodically spray the trap plant(s) with a good insecticide. It keeps most of the aphids off your peppers, and you don't have to spray your food with anything nasty.
The most effective method I've used for aphid control is to employ a trap crop. Plant something the aphids prefer over your peppers. Then periodically spray the trap plant(s) with a good insecticide. It keeps most of the aphids off your peppers, and you don't have to spray your food with anything nasty.
Yeah sadly im about to get rid of them, i have planted new seedlings. even after pruning they came back with a bigger force, before it was just a small amount now all 6 entire pepper plants is kind of covered in aphids and showering it doesn't do much, 2 days later theyre back with 5 times the amount so i guess starting over is next option and in the future never buy from a flower store cus thats how it all started, buying lavender plant from a flower store, never had any aphids issues until i bough that from a flower store.
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